Architects know best, as they often claim. With conviction, they’re sure certain details will make a space more hospitable, more beautiful, more preferable, and more enjoyable...But an emerging field of research is now uncovering and quantifying our psychological response to buildings: cognitive architecture. The hope is that by better understanding through science what exactly it is people like or dislike about our built environment, designers can truly improve it. — Fast Co Design
What does it mean to see a building? As we approach a building, what is that calls our attention? The door? The entry? That corner detail that is doing something we have never seen before? Architect Ann Sussman and designer Janice M. Ward are two leading researchers studying how our brains see... View full entry
China’s State Council announced that “weird architecture that is not economical, functional, aesthetically pleasing or environmentally friendly will be forbidden.” Many architects and members of the public understood the frustration and bewilderment, even if they questioned the subjective nature of the official instruction. — The Economist
That was a close call, thankfully 'Weird Architecture' that is economical, functional, aesthetically pleasing and environmentally friendly is still completely accepted and encouraged. China may be forcing itself into a semantically and conceptually charge subjectivism that could potentially bring... View full entry
MAD Architects looked to classic Chinese landscape paintings in designing the new Chaoyang Park Plaza, built within Beijing's central business district. Built at the southern edge of Chaoyang Park, the new 220,000 square-meter complex has a similar function to that of New York City's Central Park... View full entry
Instinctively growing out of the mountainous landscape, the serene design sensibility of the village is reflected in its natural setting. — MAD
Huangshan, located near the ancient villages of Hongcun and Xidi in China’s Anhui province, is home to one of the country’s most beautiful mountains. Known for its rich verdant scenery and distinct granite peaks, the beloved landscape has long inspired artists, offering them sheltered spaces... View full entry
The Norton Museum of Art, located in West Palm Beach Florida, recently announced design plans for the first public garden designed by Norman Foster. In addition to the sub-tropical garden, Foster's design features new walkways, green spaces, and a new grand lawn. Native flora will reinforce the... View full entry
The ArtCenter College of Design continues to move forward with a 15-year master plan for its two Pasadena campuses, with the release of a draft environmental impact report for the project. At completion, the Michael Maltzan- and Tina Chee Landscape Studio-designed expansion would increase the school's total enrollment from 2,000 full-time students to 2,500 full-time students, and its total staffing from 753 faculty to 994 faculty. — urbanize.LA
The City of Pasadena informs on its web page dedicated to the master plan project: "The ArtCenter College of Design (ArtCenter) proposes a 15-year Master Plan (the Project) that focuses growth on its South Campus, while providing for infrastructure improvements and building renovations on its... View full entry
Students and faculty from the University of Virginia created a temporary addition to Thomas Jefferson’s vision for a living and learning community. The final product – a series of interlocking arches made of nontoxic, recyclable polypropylene plastic – is very different from the neoclassical style that Thomas Jefferson admired. However, Jefferson, who had a chemistry lab installed in the Rotunda, likely would have been fascinated by the technology used in its production. — UVA Today
This week we're releasing a special, in-between, episode of Archinect Sessions. In this show we’re sharing some conversations recorded by Ken and Donna from Exhibit Columbus, while visiting a selection of installations and local architectural masterpieces. Exhibit Columbus describes itself as an... View full entry
allow the trustworthy to roam everywhere under heaven while making it hard for the discredited to take a single step — WIRED
"For instance, people with low ratings will have slower internet speeds; restricted access to restaurants, nightclubs or golf courses; and the removal of the right to travel freely abroad with, I quote, "restrictive control on consumption within holiday areas or travel businesses". Scores will... View full entry
While Apple opens the doors to their new campus, and Amazon looks for a location for its second, Microsoft has gone in a different direction, building Wi-Fi tree houses so staff can connect with nature. Microsoft's campus is comprised of 120 buildings spread across Redmond, Washington—a suburb... View full entry
The monument conservation group, World Monuments Fund, has announced 25 of the world's at-risk sites on its biennial watch list. Threatened by human conflict, climate change, disasters and/or urbanization, the newly listed historical gems span more than 30 countries and territories dating from... View full entry
“… And Though She be but Little, She is Fierce!”, the title of Liz Teston’s contribution using a quote from Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, captures the content of this MONU issue on “Small Urbanism” very well. For when it comes to urbanism, small things seem to... View full entry
The mysterious images of the physical manifestations of military power hover between abstraction and information, between the inscrutable and the mundane. They are at once compelling as visual compositions and chilling as photographic documentation of activities that are otherwise based on speculation. — MacArthur Foundation
The 2017 MacArthur fellows have been revealed. Artist and geographer, Trevor Paglen, won the award for his work on surveillance infrastructures. Twelve years ago, we followed Paglen on his field work and spoke with him about experimental geography. The full feature by Bryan Finoki is... View full entry
Architecture is a creative media that analyzes what is, while imagining what could and should be. Located in Los Angeles’ Art District, A+D Museum's current exhibit, The Architectural Imagination, is a showcase of re-imagining and rebuilding the outdated industrial urbanscape of Detroit... View full entry
Today, London’s civic spaces are the byproduct of commercial development, the results of promises made by developers to create public amenity as a condition of planning consent. Ironically, Paris, which once imported its radical architecture from London in the form of the Pompidou Centre, now has a much more visionary approach to building, (...) it is much more of a nexus for interesting architecture. — Financial Times
London's contemporary architecture seems to have lost the radical qualities of British Architecture of the 1960s and 1970s. View full entry
